Scientists just found a compound that kills 98% of a drug-resistant bacteria

[RV_]

From a sponge in the Antarctic we get a coumpound that kills 98% of them? Yep! How?

 

Excerpt:

 

"Researchers have discovered a compound in an Antarctic sea sponge that's capable of killing 98 percent of the drug-resistant superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - better known as MRSA - which is rapidly spreading throughout the US.

 

With more and more bacteria species becoming resistant to the antibiotics we have available, scientists are desperately looking for new ways to protect against infection, and early research suggests that the Antarctic sponge could be an option.

 

Staphylococcus aureus - or staph - infections are pretty common, particularly in hospital settings, and under normal circumstances they're not particularly hard to treat. But MRSA is a strain that's developed resistance to most of the antibiotics we have available, which means it can quickly spread from a superficial infection, such as a skin infection, to an invasive one, which can be life-threatening.

 

According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), around 80,000 MRSA infections are diagnosed in the US each year, and 11,000 people die from MRSA complications - and right now, we really don't have many options to fight them.

 

Which is why the discovery of this new compound, which has been named 'darwinolide', is so exciting. Researchers found it inside an Antarctic sponge, Dendrilla membranosa, and initial lab tests have shown that it's able to kill 98.4 percent of MRSA cells.

"It's a defensive compound against microbes with some very interesting properties," said one of the researchers, James McClintock, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

 

It's still very early days, but this isn't the first time that medically interesting compounds have been founding lurking in the ocean organisms in Antarctica - McClintock and his team have already identified a compound in algae that fights the H1N1 strain of the flu virus, and another that acts against melanoma skin cancer.

 

The appeal for biologists is that the region is so extreme that life has been forced to come up with some unique ways to survive - including some potent defence mechanisms, such as toxic compounds."

 

The whole article, which has many related links and much more information, including pics of the sponge, can be found here:

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-found-a-compound-that-kills-98-of-drug-resistant-bacteria

 

 

[Zulu]

From a sponge in the Antarctic we get a coumpound that kills 98% of them?

 

Thus making the other 2% invulnerable

[DavidMc]

Hmmm ... reminds me of a book (fiction, circa 2013) with a medical 'miracle' substance in an under-ice lake/deep-pool:

Frozen Solid

by Tabor, James M.

link on Amazon = https://www.amazon.com/Frozen-Solid-Novel-Hallie-Leland/dp/0345530632#reader_B009Y4I992

[LFDR3116]

Let's hope the superbugs don't adapt to this like they have everything else.

[Zulu]

Let's hope the superbugs don't adapt to this like they have everything else.

 

Of course they will. We're speeding up Darwinian natural selection.

[RV_]

The problem is that the Darwinian selection happens to all of the rest of us too, who do not think antibiotics are required for viral infections, muscle aches and pains, etc. In the old days in the Medical laboratories we didn't have Vitek machines to automate the identification of bacterial organisms and we always incubated with the standard antibiotic pills arranged in a circle to see which antibiotics affected the particular organism the patient had. (Sensitivity test)

 

Actually the natural selection happening is when us human stop taking the properly prescribed antibiotic before the prescribed time. Many folks stop as soon as the symptoms ease up which may be several days before the bug is wiped out, killing only the most susceptible organisms and leaving the best to resist to multiply.

 

Ignorance is not bliss.